Saturday, October 1, 2011

Dover II Qualifying Quotes

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford FusionQualified 7th
“There’s just a lot of grip out there and this track, as fast as it is, it’s a fun place. I love this place. The Best Buy Ford has always been fast here. The lap times are so close that I don’t know if I could have got anymore out of it. It’s not gonna be quite good enough, but it’ll be decent. The car was fast in race trim and we’ve been close here trying to get a win, so hopefully tomorrow we can be up there and at least have some fun with it."

HOW WAS THE LAP?
“It was fast. This place is awesome. I love this place. On a day like this when it’s cold, you just go in there and you kind of land and you just grab some throttle and hopefully it sticks. The Best Buy Ford was quick. I always want more. We’ve been so close here to getting a pole, but, overall, it’s a good day. It’s been a good weekend so far and hopefully we can go out there tomorrow and have some fun and be up in front and try to steal a win here."

DO YOU FEEL IF YOU’RE GOING TO WIN THAT THIS WILL BE THE PLACE?
“I think this is a chance to win. I don’t know if you ever feel like you’re gonna win here. There is a lot that goes into these races to try to have a chance to win and I just know the Best Buy Ford will be fast enough and we’ll have a chance to at least be up there. Then you just have to hope that everything goes your way. This is a place that I always enjoy. I love it. It’s my favorite race track. Hopefully, we can have a good run tomorrow and at the end we have a chance to win the thing. If not, we’re just gonna get the best we can out of it."

AFTER THE RACE IN MAY DID YOU WANT TO COME BACK THE NEXT DAY OR WERE YOU SO TICKED OFF YOU DIDN’T WANT TO COME BACK ANYTIME SOON?
“I feel like if we raced here about 20-22 times out of the year, we might have a chance to win the championship. It’s the rest of the race tracks we’ve got to keep getting better at, but I’m just happy to show up at any race track. This one is always enjoyable and I just love this place. When I first walked into this place in ’07 I thought, ‘What in the hell am I walking in to? This place is insane,’ but as a race car driver it’s so much fun to drive. I never say anything owes me one, but we definitely have a chance to come here and at least contend tomorrow and hopefully be there at the end."

SO MANY RACES HAVE GONE TO FUEL MILEAGE AND YOU HAVE STRUGGLED WITH THAT. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?
“Any race can go to fuel mileage, it’s just a matter of when the yellow flag falls. You don’t worry about it until it happens. It’s something that I know Doug Yates and everybody at the engine shop is working on and it’s something personally that I have to work on to as far as my driving technique. It’s just the way it’s happened. Nobody truly loves fuel mileage races, but it’s a part of racing and it’s a fair part of racing. All you can do is work on it when it happens and keep working on the things you can control. I know Doug Yates and those guys are working on the things they can control, I’ve got to work on the things I can control."

IS IT EASIER IN A SENSE?
“No, there’s nothing easy about anything. There’s nothing easy."

DO YOU HAVE AS GOOD A CAR HERE THIS TIME AROUND?
“I don’t know. The track is a little bit different. We’re just gonna keep working on it and we’ll see how tomorrow plays out."

Contact Info

I'm not affiliated with AJ or the Allmendinger family in any way. Nor am I employed by or affiliated with JTG Daugherty Racing. I am just a very devoted fan who enjoys sharing information about my favorite driver.